New Rihanna Song “Goodbye” Recalls A Good Girl Gone Sad

We had barely digested the news that Rihanna might be prepping a more upbeat pop album for summer when we came across the maudlin piano ballad “Goodbye”. A previously unreleased track, it’s evidently a Good Girl Gone Bad-era holdover, but it’s worth a listen — think of it as a prequel to a few of the somber tracks that overburden Rated R. And it’s maybe the best argument yet that she needs to try something new.
[wpaudio url=”//idolator.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Rihanna-Goodbye-BMF.mp3″ text=”Rihanna – Goodbye” dl=”0″]
Words has it the track was (like plenty of other stuff in Rihanna’s catalog) crafted by her longtime producers Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken. But it’s not hard to understand why this never made the cut for an album — it’s just a cookie-cutter track, and Rihanna has turned in better vocal performances on superior ballads, “Unfaithful” being just one.

But you can sort of imagine that “Goodbye”, with its rock crescendo (think Evanescence’s torchy “My Immortal”), set the stage for songs like Rated R‘s gritty “Fire Bomb”. That said, we’ve heard enough of this kind of material from her, and it’s time to move on.

We shouldn’t have to say this, but we will: she better not sing this one at the Kids Choice Awards. Neither we nor Justin Bieber could handle it.